Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan has accused match officials of unfairly denying his team a place in the quarter-finals of the 2026 FIFA World Cup following their dramatic 3-2 defeat to Argentina.
The Pharaohs surrendered a two-goal lead in Tuesday’s Round of 16 clash as the defending champions mounted a late comeback to book their place in the last eight.
Speaking after the match, Hassan claimed Egypt had been “cheated” by controversial officiating decisions.
“I do not want to talk about hard luck. We have been cheated unfairly today. We have suffered injustice,” he said.
Egypt had a goal by Mostafa Zico ruled out following a Video Assistant Referee (VAR) review, which spotted an earlier foul on Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez. Zico later scored to give Egypt a 2-0 advantage and move the North Africans close to a historic quarter-final berth.
However, Argentina responded through Cristian Romero before Lionel Messi equalised after earlier seeing a first-half penalty saved by Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir. Enzo Fernandez then scored the winning goal to complete the comeback.
Hassan also questioned the build-up to Argentina’s winner, insisting Egypt should have been awarded a penalty after Alexis Mac Allister allegedly pulled Hamdy Fathy inside the box.
According to the Egyptian coach, the incident was not reviewed by VAR despite protests from his players.
“We haven’t seen respect or fair play. A penalty was ignored and not even checked by VAR. Our second goal was disallowed, but there was no review of the shirt-pulling incident,” he said.
The 58-year-old added that he was so disappointed with the officiating that he no longer intended to watch the remainder of the tournament.
Hassan further suggested that Argentina and captain Lionel Messi had benefited from favourable treatment, saying there may have been pressure to keep the reigning champions and the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner in the competition.
He also criticised FIFA over the scheduling of the match, arguing that the noon kick-off gave players insufficient time to prepare after both teams had played only four days earlier.
Despite the defeat, Egypt impressed during the tournament, coming close to reaching the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time in the country’s history.
